Question 11102 — overseas

Summary

Mr. Éric Alauzet draws the attention of the Minister of State, Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, to the potential consequences of the exploitation of gold deposits in Guyana as part of the “Montagne d'or” industrial gold mine project. This project would in fact establish the open-air exploitation of a gold mine in the Amazonian tropical forest in the northwest of Guyana. A consortium formed by companies, respectively Canadian (Colombus Gold) and Russian (Nordgold) are behind the project and plan to construct the mine from 2019 to 2021 before extraction for a period of twelve years. If the President of the Republic said he was in favor of such an undertaking, energy, environmental, social, cultural and economic considerations must be raised while awaiting the report of the debate public organized around the project by the national commission for public debate, July 7, 2018 being the deadline to express its opinion. From an energy point of view, the energy performance of such a project does not seem optimal given that the site's consumption will represent 8.5% of Guyana's electricity consumption and the volumes of fuel and water that will be consumed in twelve years could be considerable. Had With regard to biodiversity, the site will be located near two parks with unparalleled biological wealth, hence potential consequences on biodiversity. Its creation will also result in the uprooting of an area of ​​more than 8 km2 in order to create a pit more than 200 meters deep and 2.5 kilometers long according to the latest estimates, leading to a significant loss of animal and plant biodiversity. Finally, some point out the dangers linked to the use of cyanidation to recover gold. However, cyanide, known for its toxicity, requires the use of basins whose safety, linked to waterproofing, is called into question. Economic interest cannot also be questioned and dismissed. If direct (750) and indirect (3,000) employment promises were made, studies show that these estimates were made using overly optimistic forecasts concerning in particular variations in the price of gold on the raw materials market. Finally, the project could constitute a violation of the Nagoya Protocol, signed by France in September 2011, which intends to combine protection of indigenous peoples - and therefore Amerindians in this case - and protection of biodiversity as a heritage for these peoples but also a means of subsistence and resources for humanity, particularly in medicines. Also, he wants to know his position on this project.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.